buttercup
by McMuffin
Summary: Mark and Teddy are both miserable after another break-up. Arizona and Callie play matchmaker to the not-so-happy couple in the hopes of making them happy again. Slightly AU, post season 6.


_A massive thanks to Aly for urging me to write & then send her snippets on AIM. Seriously, this wouldn't be finished if not for her. And to my other twitter friends who were like a little cheer squad and 'cause of them I finished the last scene. Anyway, I hope you gaiz like this. I feel like I haven't really written anything in a while... and I started on this about two months ago, so, it feels good to have finished it._

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* * *

_

Today is not a good day. No, today is most definitely not good at all. Not in the slightest. Today is horrible.

She is in the process of kicking a lone glove around the floor, sending it flying until it drops to the ground with a splat, when a voice startles her.

"Seriously?"

It's not a word she likes, but one that apparently everyone in this hospital uses. She scuffs her sneakers, turning in position to find a very cheery pediatric surgeon looking at her with eyebrows poised.

"Seriously, Teddy? You're this upset that you're hiding out in the darkest corner of the hospital where nobody can find you?"

Teddy purses her lips together and gives one last kick at the glove before looking back up at Arizona when she hears the splat of the glove.

"Well, you're here so obviously I can be found," she mutters.

The other blonde steps closer towards her, not at all off put by the scowl on her lips or the air of disdain surrounding her.

"Cheer up buttercup," Arizona starts her attempt to cheer up Teddy, but is cut off.

"Don't call me buttercup," Teddy barely manages to utter before she's transported from present to past.

"Oh," Arizona gasps. "Ohh no, you're in one of those reflective trances. Snap out of it, Teddy!" Arizona waves her hand in front of the cardiothoracic surgeon to no avail once she sees the pensive look.

* * *

_He wraps his arms around her, fingers tangling in the towel's folds. "Mm, your hair smells like..."_

_"What?" she giggles, twisting her fingers through his shirt._

_"Buttercup," Mark says before he drops a kiss to her temple._

_"It does not!" She skims over his lumbar. "My conditioner is strawberry flavoured."_

_"Flavoured? You eat your conditioner?" He raises his brows at her with a typical smile gracing his lips._

_"Scented. And you're getting off topic."_

_"How?"_

_"My hair does not smell like buttercup!"_

_"Fine, I lied. But it looks like a buttercup." He drops a kiss to her other temple, her thumbs loop through his boxers, the ends of her hair drip puddles on his shirt._

_"Really?"_

_"It's yellow, I like it." Mark brushes his lips against hers lightly._

_"It's blonde," Teddy mumbles against his lips._

_"It's yellow."_

_"Is _not_!"_

_"In this light it is." His tongue skims her lower lip._

_"You need glasses." Her teeth clash against his._

_"Do not. It's buttercup colour... I like it. You're a buttercup."_

_"Buttercups are toxic."_

_"Only when eaten fresh." Mark captures her lips with his completely, her tongue meshing against his, her breath catching in her throat._

_"So?" She gasps, trying to inhale._

_"I guess I'll just have to eat you... Not-fresh, then," he whispers, his breath tickling her damp skin._

_"And how do you suppose you'll do that?" She cocks her head to the left, his hand reaches up to tug on a loose strand of that buttercup coloured hair._

_"Well I guess I should start off by washing you, then..." He tugs on the towel and her hands move to hold his in place._

_"I just showered!" She juts out her chin, like a child._

_"Oh right, well in that case, you're no longer freshly picked, you have been washed and cleaned... I can eat you now," Mark flashes his pearly whites and she fights the urge to roll her eyes._

_"You sound like a vampire," Teddy mutters, once again swatting away his wandering hand._

_"Why must you question everything I say?"_

_"Because you're a very cryptic man, Mark Sloan," she laughs. He tugs on the towel again, and she struggles to stop him._

_"_Sure_ I am, Buttercup."_

_The towel falls to the floor. So does his shirt. Something makes a splat noise._

* * *

She blinks a few times, seeing the glove fall to the linoleum and frowns, her lips parting in question.

"Oh thank god, you're back," says the other blonde who is now sitting on a spare gurney. "Where'd you go?"

"Uh, nowhere," Teddy mumbles.

"Sure, sure. Anyway, as I was saying before... Cheer up!" Arizona pats the gurney next to her and Teddy rolls her eyes, dragging her feet towards the pediatric surgeon.

"I can't cheer up," she mutters as she sits down next to Arizona.

"Yes, you can! You can cheer up and be all happy and awesome."

Teddy shakes her head. "I don't think I'm capable of that."

"Yes you are! You're tough and hardcore. You're a freakin' heart surgeon and you were in the army. You're awesome!"

Teddy stands and picks up the discarded glove from the floor, snapping it between her fingers. Arizona finds the sound annoying after a while, and plans on tearing it from the other woman's fingers, until she speaks softly.

"I saw Lexie kiss Mark."

"Oh," Arizona blinks. "I thought they were broken up."

"So did I."

"So…"

"So I'm not capable of being all of those things that you said," Teddy mutters.

It only takes a second for Arizona to compose herself. "_Yes!_ You are! You've survived a war, Teddy. You survived a freakin' war." Arizona grins up at her friend. "And you've gotten over Owen Hunt, who you called the love of your life when you were drunk once-"

"He's not the love of my life!" Teddy protests.

"I know, Mark is-" Arizona smirks as Teddy protests again.

"He's not either! I do not, and did not love Mark Sloan!"

Arizona raises an eyebrow at Teddy, and the taller blonde sighs.

"Fine, I love Mark Sloan, happy?"

"Thank you!" Arizona exclaims, holding her arms out to the ceiling and throwing her head back.

Teddy leans against the wall. "But Mark kissed Lexie."

"I thought you said Lexie kissed Mark?" Arizona asks with creases in her forehead.

"I did." Teddy sighs, her head rolling to the side against the wall to look at her friend.

"Did you _see_ Mark kiss her back?" Arizona asks.

"… No."

"Think about that for a while, I've gotta go." Arizona hopped off the gurney, peppy as always.

"You can't go! You were distracting me!"

"Sorry, Teddy. I've got kids to check up on!"

Teddy returns to kicking the glove around as Arizona rushes off.

* * *

Mark's swirling the carrots around with the potatoes and squishing the peas into a soggy green mess. He's like a toddler, wanting what he can't have and not having what he should. He doesn't feel like eating his vegetables, and he's sick of feeling like he screwed up everything that was right for him. There's no denying that he's fucked up. When Lexie kissed him today, he was quick to push her away, but not quick enough. He knows that his favourite blonde saw the kiss. He knows that he misses his favourite blonde. And he knows that his favourite blonde will never take him back.

Why should she? He slept with that now-deceased intern, then later, when he was dating his favourite blonde again, he screwed up, broke up with her, and returned to dating the other blonde (the one who kissed him today.) Now he's dumped the other blonde, remembering, after merely a fortnight, how wrong they are for each other, and he just wants his favourite blonde back. But he's sure that she'll never take him back.

"Hi!" Another blonde (perkier, wears roller sneakers) sits down in the empty seat and proceeds to scoot closer around the table next to him.

"Hey, Arizona," he mumbles, stabbing a piece of broccoli.

"And how are we today?" Arizona sips on a juice box, making that irritating sucking sound.

"I don't think you can group us," he gestures between them. "Collectively."

"Well, if all goes to plan, I will be able to," she responds with a grin.

"Huh?" Mark's eyes narrow. "What plan?"

She ignores his comment. "I hear Lexie Grey kissed you today."

"She did," he shoves a piece of broccoli in his mouth, hoping she'll get the hint that he doesn't want to talk.

"Did you kiss her back?"

He groans and shakes his head.

"Okay then." She sips on her juice box. "Did you push her away?" He nods. "But Teddy didn't see you push her away?" He nods. "Wait, I'm confused, was that a nod that Teddy saw you push her away, or a nod that Teddy didn't see you-"

"Teddy fucking thinks I kissed her back - which I didn't - and now she _really _won't want to take me back," he hisses, pieces of broccoli flying from his mouth.

Arizona brushes said broccoli from her scrubs, not at all phased as worse happens to her every day from the children. "You'd be surprised."

"What?" He grunts.

"I'm just saying… you'd be surprised. You're miserable, Teddy's miserable too."

Mark's jaw drops open, giving Arizona a view of the bolus in his mouth.

"Could you please stop being so… caveman-like? You're reminding me of Owen," Arizona mutters.

Mark chuckles briefly, and then remembers what she'd just said. "So, wait, Teddy's miserable?"

"Yes, you moron." Arizona rolls her eyes. "If you weren't so stupid and self-absorbed you'd notice, too."

"I'm not self-absorbed!"

"Yes you are, you… twit!"

"Twit?" He replies, almost as if he's in a daze.

"Yeah, I don't know, I didn't really know what else to insult you with because I don't like to swear much… oh god. Not another one of these trances!" Arizona groans, noticing Mark staring off into space like Teddy was doing earlier.

* * *

_"Mark! You fed the fish _way_ too much!" Teddy shrieks towards the patio._

_"I did not! I fed him just enough," Mark shouts back._

_"You didn't!" She storms outside with a handful of soggy flakes in her left hand. "Look at this!"_

_He looks up just in time to have said handful be thrust into his face. "Ew, Teddy! That smells!"_

_"You think? Look how much there is!"_

_He stands up slowly, holding his hands up much like an accused criminal. "I'm sorry, okay. How much is he supposed to get?"_

_"A pinch! Not a… not a handful! Didn't you read the label?"_

_"I, uh, well the writing was kinda small, babe."_

_"You twit!" She throws the handful of fish food at him._

_"Teddy!" He gasps, glancing down at the wet puddle forming on his shirt. She raises her right hand to her mouth, giggling softly._

_"I'm sorry, babe."_

_"Oh, you're going to get it!" He growls and chases her back into the cottage._

_Teddy squeals and runs away from him, heading for the kitchen, but he catches her arm before the leaves the living room and twists her around for a searing kiss. His tongue dances against hers and her body presses up against his briefly before he pulls away._

_"Now you smell of fish food, too."_

_"Ma-ark," she groans with a pout. "This is my favourite top."_

_"Payback's a bitch," he mutters, before pushing her towards the wall, kissing her hungrily._

_"_Stop_!" She shrieks as she feels her back press into the mantelpiece. "Fish bowl, right behind me!"_

_Mark parts from her lips and looks up to realize that the fish bowl is, indeed, right behind her and she is very close to bumping into it and knocking the fish to its death._

_"Oops," he mutters._

_"Geez, you need to be more careful with my fish. Don't you know how to look after a pet, Mark?" She jokes._

_"I've never had a pet," he tells her softly._

_"Oh."_

_"Don't look at me like that," he tells her, pressing his lips to her nose. "I'm fine… let's think of your fish as my first pet, okay?"_

_"Okay," she giggles. "You better not kill your first pet."_

_"I'll try my best."_

_He pushes her back into the wall, away from the fish and the mantelpiece. Her favourite top falls to the floor. So does his shirt. Something makes a 'clang' noise._

* * *

He whips his head around, seeing the spoon bounce off of the tiles and frowns, his lips parting in question.

"Welcome back from the clouds, Sloan," Arizona mutters sarcastically. "You're just like her."

"What?"

"Never mind," Arizona says with one last sip of her juice box.

"So, what were you saying?" He asks, stabbing his fork into a carrot.

"That you're miserable, Teddy's miserable… but you both make each other happy. You've made mistakes, she's made assumptions… but you can clarify this. You're an –"

"Get to the point, Robbins," he says.

"You two need to get back together."

"She's not going to take me back for a second time," he replies dejectedly.

"You'd be surprised." Arizona takes one last sip from her juice box, tosses the container in the middle of his mashed up food and stands to leave the cafeteria. "Talk to her, Sloan."

* * *

Arizona stands by a coffee cart, grinning madly to herself as she stares at the cardiothoracic surgeon slumped over at the nurses' station. She twiddles her pen in her fingers, just waiting for Mark Sloan to arrive and answer the page she just sent him. She looks quite sly to anyone who looks at her for more than a second.

"Please tell me you don't have a thing for Teddy," her girlfriend jokes as she sidles up to her.

"No, Calliope, I only have eyes for you," Arizona replies and briefly turns her gaze towards her girlfriend with a smile.

"I know. So what are you doing?"

"I paged Mark to the nurses' station… Teddy is currently at the nurses' station." Arizona bounces in her runners.

"Did you talk to them?" Callie asks, tucking a chart under her arm.

"Yep. And I think I've opened them up to talking to each other."

"Yay, you!" Callie grins. "God, those two are so stupid for doing this dance around each other."

"Hey, you did tell Mark that Lexie was the love of his life and that he should go get her- I do believe that you aided him in this dance." Arizona pokes Callie.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know that Mark and Teddy were meant to be!" Callie exclaims loudly.

"Shhh, Teddy can't know we're here, or Mark for that matter… oh, shhh." Mark's just come into view from the other end of the nurses' station and Arizona has clamped a hand over both her and Callie's mouths.

They watch as the plastic surgeon asks a nurse why he was page, gets a confused reaction from the nurse, and then looks around to see Teddy only a few meters away. The blonde looks rigid, almost as if she's trying to act like an inanimate object. They watch as Mark takes a step towards her, then another, then turns and walks away from her, towards them.

"Damn it!" Arizona curses- incredibly annoyed.

Callie catches Mark's arm as he passes them, and he loses his balance for a second as she pulls him towards the wall.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you talking to her?" Callie hisses.

"I can't."

"Why the hell not, Mark?"

"She won't believe me," he stares at the floor.

"Oh, stop acting like someone kicked your puppy, or someone _will _kick _you. _And not in a nice place either," Callie hisses.

"Callie," he whines. "What if she doesn't listen to me?"

"Then you make her talk to you. Come on, where's the Mark Sloan I know and love? Stop being a pussy. Where's your confidence?" Arizona chuckles at her girlfriend's assaults on Mark.

"She took it… along with my heart."

"Oh please. She didn't take your confidence. You're just afraid of getting hurt by her, which, by the way, is something _you've _done to her a few times. So get over it and talk to her, or I will kick your ass, Mark middle-name-that-I-don't-know Sloan."

Mark stalks away after Callie gives him one last glare, while Callie turns to her girlfriend, mumbling that she can't believe she doesn't know Mark's middle name and that she must find that out.

* * *

Teddy's still slumped over the nurses' station when Mark finally walks over to her. He leans against the bench, mimicking her posture, and she continues to write in her chart.

"Hey Teddy," he begins slowly.

"Hello Mark," she replies stiffly.

"So, I need to talk to you." With every word, he regains his usual confidence.

"That is what we're doing, is it not?" She replies in a bored voice.

"Yes, it is indeed. So how have you been, Buttercup?" He asks her.

"Fine," she replies sharply, looking up from her chart at him with a picture perfect smile playing on her lips. "How have you been?"

He's taken aback for a moment at her strength and apparent happiness. Then he decides to throw her off her game. "I didn't kiss Lexie back." Her smile wavers. "I pushed her away. I don't want her."

She snaps the chart closed. "Well then, good for you."

Her attempt to brush past him fails when he grasps her arm gently and whispers her name. "Teddy."

"Mark…" Teddy stares at him with pleading eyes, begging him not to hurt her again.

"I miss you, Buttercup." This time, his use of that nickname doesn't freeze her up, it melts her, and she mumbles 'on call room' before freeing herself from his grasp.

Arizona bounces and pokes Callie. "They're talking!"

"I think they're going to an on call room!" Callie giggles.

"High five, we're awesome!" Arizona grins at her girlfriend before they return to watching the other couple walk down the hallway, awkwardly.

* * *

"Mark, you can't just – "

He cuts Teddy off with his mouth, pressing her against a wall of the on call room as he twists the lock behind him and cups her left hip with his right hand. He thumbs circles on her hip and drags his teeth over her bottom lip softly, his tongue teasing its way between her lips. When she trembles beneath him and her tongue's brushed against his enough, he pulls away, staring into her eyes.

"I miss you, Buttercup," he whispers sincerely.

"I…" Her eyes aren't staying focused and he knows he has a lot of ground to catch up. She doesn't trust him.

"I know you miss me too… and I know that you don't trust me, I know that. But I'm asking you to trust me. I didn't kiss Lexie back. I was miserable for those two weeks I got back with Lexie… and I'm still miserable. I'm miserable without you. Giving you reason to break up with me, and breaking up you … those were the two most stupid mistakes I've ever made. And I won't repeat those mistakes, I swear to you, Teddy, I won't."

"Mark… I want to trust you, I just, I – "

"We'll take it slow, okay?" He dips his head, meeting her fleeting gaze.

Teddy shrugs. "Okay." She doesn't sound very excited.

"Just an okay? I thought you'd be more excited." He frowns.

"I… Considering the last two times we've been together it's ended within two months, I can't really be that excited…"

"It's not going to end within two months, I told you that, Teddy. I promise you that Teddy," Mark says firmly, gripping her elbows.

"Why did you sleep with Reed? And why did you break it off the next time?" She asks him, gnawing on her lower lip.

"I…" He runs a hand through his hair, stepping away from her to give her some space. "I slept with Reed because I was… I wasn't in a good place. I'd just come out of a serious relationship and I didn't want to get into anything serious again - with you - in case it ended and my heart was broken again, so I ended it quickly… and when we got together again… Lexie came onto me after breaking up with Alex, and I… I thought maybe Lexie and I could get back to the happiness we once had."

Teddy folds her arms together and stares at him, urging him to continue.

"But we couldn't – Lexie and me – we couldn't get back to that happiness, because it doesn't exist anymore. We don't work; we're not right for each other… not like you and me. We're right for each other, we make each other happy. We've always been happy together, _always. _So I know you must have felt so… so confused when I broke up with you. I was such an idiot to break up with you… but I'm asking for you to take me back, I've realized now… I'm not going to be stupid. I want you. You make me happy." He pauses to examine her posture. She's relaxed, a slight smile playing on her lips. "I love you."

She meets his eyes again and her slight smile turns into a full smile. "I love you too."

"So you'll take me back?" He asks joyfully.

"Yes." She grins. "You twit. Couldn't you have realized this, say, before you broke up with me?"

Mark chuckles. "If only, Buttercup."

Teddy steps forward and wraps her arms around his neck. "I love you, you twit."

"I love you too, Buttercup."

* * *

_Fin._


End file.
